please help - csa say my partner owes £43,000
July 23, 2008
My partner had a good relationship with his two children from his ex wife, when he first split from her 2001 (she was having an affair),he had a very well paid job and was paying her £150 per week for about a year, until he lost his job, which then intern he had some sort of mental breakdown. He was unable to return to work until 2005, when he got with me. (His ex also started another new relationship after another affair).
In the four years that he was`nt working he continued to see the children every weekend, she was happy not receiving any moneys as she was in a new relationship in which she had another child, (she failed to mention that she had put in a claim to the CSA when they first split,(when he earnt good money) which she never cancelled, and he knew nothing about) He then moved in with me and my 2children from a previous, things were great, all the children got on really well and formed good relationships (step brothers and sisters) (did I mention that we were all friends, and that’s how I met my partner, she was fine with this).
Then my partner and I decided to have a baby together to complete our family unit, things were great whilst I was pregnant, but as soon as our daughter was born, god how she changed, stopped our contact with the kids, filled the children’s heads with all sorts of rubbish, anyway we moved to a bigger house after I fell pregnant again, then the letter came from the CSA in 2007, which was the first my partner heard, saying they wanted £15,000 in arrears, and £120 per week, we filled in the forms stating the moneys we get, and that we just couldn’t afford to pay that sort of money, we heard nothing back until march this year, shortly after the birth of our son, stating that his ex had put in a new claim (she is now married), they don`t take her husbands income into account but they take mine “child tax credit and child benefit,” which is what the government has assessed us in needing to live off.
Her husband earns over a thousand pound a week, my partner bearly gets 600 a month. So they assessed us on our moneys and decided that he has to pay 25% of his (our) earnings working out at £66 per week, which unfortunately we still cant afford that. The CSA doesn`t care about the fact we have 4 children to support on a low income, that’s NOT there problem I was told in a phone conversation.(Also I discovered that if I went back to work to cover the moneys taken by the CSA, then they would take even more off of us, so basically this has stuffed up my plans into returning to work).
I then contacted our local MP, they contacted the CSA on our behalf, stating that they must be able to reduce the payments as we just cant AFFORD it, we then received the letter, saying they`ve been contacted by the houses of parlement, and this is there new result, we still have too pay £66 which they are now going to take direct from his wages and we NOW owe £43,000, (we obviously upset the CSA by trying to go above there heads) which if we don`t pay he faces prison, losing his liecence, and the bailifs coming to take MY things (as he had nothing when he moved in with me), this is having such a negative affect on our family, I`m not saying he shouldn`t pay anything, but how can the CSA legally put our children into poverty, to benefit the other 2, when there family unit is well benefitted already, please is there someone out there that can help, my parnter has talked about ending it all……I don`t know if he means litrally, he is now depressed as am I, please can someone offer some advise……….
CSA force infertile man to pay for kid that isn’t his
July 10, 2008
In a story indicative of the child support agency and their myriad of mistakes, they’ve forced a 54-year old man to pay over £8,000 in maintenance for a child that isn’t his. Not only is the girl not his daughter, he’s infertile and cannot have children. Despite having a doctor’s letter and a DNA test showing the girl is not his daughter, the CSA threatened him with bailiffs and county court judgments, pressurising the man into paying.
The man was forced to take medication for epilepsy in 1986, which has left him sterile. His wife fell pregnant in 1992 with a baby girl, that he believes was due to her having an affair. They soon separated after she fell pregnant.
He claims the CSA have been out to get him for the last four years, despite it being impossible that he is the father.
I was married for 25 years and when my wife fell pregnant it was a real shock. She said I must have done it in my sleep, which is ridiculous.
Although I knew I was not the baby’s father I brought her up as my own.
When my wife and I split in 2002 I wanted to stop the CSA payments.
I started an appeal in 2004 but despite me telling the CSA of my health problems, offering them doctors’ letters and sending them a DNA test proving I was not the father, they still made me pay.
It is £41 a week and I have already paid over £8,000.
The Department for Work and Pensions gave their usual response to the complaint:
We cannot comment on individual cases.
This is one of the worst stories I’ve heard to date from the CSA.
Judi Cass emails MrDaz
June 30, 2008
Judi Cass, the CSA’s Senior Complaints Resolution Manager, has emailed perennial CSA complainant MrDaz about his case. She’s attempted to answer his complaint about why it took his caseworker, Steve Gibson, almost three months to return a call and why they’re deducting arrears from him when he was paying his ex-wife’s share of the mortgage on a jointly owned house.
Judi Cass considers the matter closed, but MrDaz certainly doesn’t judging from his blog. We can expect a full salvo from him very soon in the direction of Judi Cass, and knowing him it’ll all be blogged about on his site.
My favourite bit from Judi Cass’ letter is:
I am unable to comment on what you say you were advised regarding the variations application as I am unable to retrieve the actual call from our records.
I’m betting MrDaz is able to retrieve the call, he records all of his phone calls and often puts them on YouTube and his website. I’m sure if Judi Cass wants a copy of the call, just to hear what Steve Gibson actually said, she only needs to ask.
You can read the full letter here.
Child Support Handbook
June 25, 2008
For parents who need some advice on dealing with the Child Support Agency and the breakdown of a marriage or partnership when children are involved, there is a handbook available that offers advice on the matter.
The book offers help and advice on how the CSA operates, and gives guidance towards how the CSA calculate their payments.
One thing the book has that will be very useful for most people, particularly readers of this website, is the chapter on CSA complaints. It talks through the process of making a complaint. It also covers the new proposed child maintenance and enforcement commission, so the book is up-to-date.
Have a look at the book, and let us know what you think of it if you’ve read it already. Is it useful?
Maurice Barnett in the Blackpool Gazette
June 24, 2008
Maurice Barnett of the Dead Beat Dads association managed to get some coverage for his plight, and his fight against the CSA in the Blackpool Gazette.
Thirty-Seven year old Maurice is a dad of three kids from Thornton and wishes to help like minded fathers who are battling with the CSA. Maurice believes that the tactics used by the Child Support Agency are too harsh, leaving many fathers unable to cope with the pressure and financial burdens.
In a similar story with many fathers battling the CSA, Maurice was left feeling depressed and facing repossession on his home.
Maurice says:
We want a fairer system set-up.
Any man’s rights have been completely eroded away. You could pay your ex-wife cash-in-hand for six years, fall out and she can contact the CSA who demand you pay it all again.
When they get involved, fathers are losing contact with their children.
Fathers are moving out of the home, paying for their children and then being told their bedsit isn’t appropriate or they can’t afford to pick up their children.
It’s true that the CSA cause fathers to lose contact with their children, because they reward the mothers financially for cutting the fathers out entirely. The mothers get more money if the father doesn’t have access to his children. A father who sees his children regularly and has overnight contact with them has to pay less, so obviously mothers are refusing access.
The system has completely missed the point of keeping family’s in touch.
Maurice has founded the organisation together with his partner, Sherri. She says about the Dead Beat Dads:
MPs up and down the country are being bombarded with calls for help from fathers.
We hear the CSA are asking non-resident fathers what is the limit on your credit card? Can you remortgage your house? Just to get people to settle their arrears.
They are telling people they shouldn’t have had a second family.
The CSA gave the same standard response they always give, completely missing the point again:
Every parent has a financial responsibility for their child.
We look at each case individually to ensure the correct maintenance assessment is made.
This isn’t about securing money for the CSA but about recovering money for those children who are owed it.
The Child Support Agency need to realise the damage they are doing to families, and in particular to children.
How have the CSA handled your case?
June 15, 2008
As this morning fathers throughout the country are receiving hugs and presents from their children, thousands of fathers are unfortunate not to even see their kids. The fact that many fathers are unable to see their children is something that the child support agency don’t care about.
So, on this Father’s Day, how have the CSA handled your case? Let us know in this poll.
Loading ...Zoe Williams says fathers shouldn’t have a say
June 13, 2008
Zoe Williams wrote on the Guardian website about the proposed change in the law that says mothers can leave the name of the father off the birth certificate of their child in exceptional circumstances.
The idea is that if the father isn’t known, is absent or the child was the product of a rape then the mother need not answer any questions she doesn’t want to, she can just say no to the father’s name being on the birth certificate.
Zoe Williams says that this works in the father’s favour:
Any father who actively doesn’t want to be on the certificate need only pressure the mother into claiming an exemption.
She goes on to say in relation to the recent protest by the Fathers 4 Justice:
And who’s this all for? To appease the very small number of fathers who are desperate to be involved with their newborns, and yet the mother, for reasons not related to violence or harassment, won’t let them. This is what you get for putting your underpants on over your trousers and capering about on public buildings and Harriet Harman’s roof. It’s not bad, is it? We should all have a go.
She has completely missed the point. She’s of the opinion that this will empower women to make decisions for themselves amidst the terror of the father of their child wanting to be a part of the child’s life. The father, according to Miss Williams, is a monster that should be locked out of his child’s life, without any reason required from the mother.
Zoe Williams is the sort of woman who the Fathers 4 Justice are fighting against. The sort of woman who thinks fathers don’t have any rights. What do you think about all of this?
CSA going after mothers as well as fathers
June 11, 2008
You may think that the child support agency are just going after absent fathers in order to get them to pay up to the mother? In fact that’s not true, there are over 150,000 mothers living apart from their children in the UK. This is as a result of the UK courts awarding custody to fathers.
Margaret Clarke is one such mother, she came home from work to find that her husband had left and had taken their two children with him.
My husband ended our eight-year marriage by walking out with my two young sons, then aged 4 and 2. I came home to an empty house. It was a nightmare.
Despite a court ruling that she could have her children back, her husband refused.
When it comes to custody battles, possession is nine tenths of the law. If you’ve got the kids from the outset you are in a much better position to maintain the status quo. My ex-husband was able to establish a ‘new normal’ with the children, thus initiating the elimination of me as their mother from their lives.
Eventually Margaret lost her case as she was working full time, and like so many fathers today she paid the price for being the main earner in the family. She was confined to just having contact with her children once a week and every other weekend.
This isn’t uncommon now, as the CSA have shown that the non resident parent is actually the mother in 66,900 of their cases.
Sarah Hart claims that mothers living apart from their children are being unfairly labelled as unfit mothers.
People assume that they have either abandoned their children or been deemed unfit mothers by the courts. They are perceived as bad mums, odd, possibly even heartless, selfish or cruel.
In reality, the circumstances surrounding a mother choosing to living apart from a child are often complex and emotionally charged. Decisions are often made very quickly in times of high stress, few resources and seemingly few choices.
This is of course what every father living apart from his children goes through, so while Sarah Hart is correct in that just because a mother lives apart from her children, and doesn’t have custody, it doesn’t mean she is a bad mother; by the same token every father that lives apart from his children isn’t a bad father.
For fathers though the issue is greater as many of them don’t even have access to their children due to the mother’s refusal to allow them.
When it comes to custody rights in the UK, the law is still firmly on the woman’s side.
Will the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission improve the CSA?
June 10, 2008
When the CSA becomes the new Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission do you think it will make any difference for parents with care and non resident parents? Do you think things will improve, or do you think things will get worse?
Let us know by voting in our poll, what difference do you think the CSA becoming the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission will actually make?
Loading ...Fathers 4 Justice protest at Harriet Harman’s home
June 8, 2008
The Fathers 4 justice have targeted Harriet Harman’s home for a protest today, climbing onto her roof dressed as super heroes.
Forty-Six year old Mark Harris and Forty-One year old Jolly Stanesby, both from Plymouth, climbed up onto the roof dressed as Captain Conception and Cash Gordon, armed with a banner that read: “A father is for life, not just conception”. The Fathers 4 Justice group has been campaigning for fathers rights in the UK.
Both Harriet Harman and her husband, Jack Dromey, are said to be inside the house.
Fathers 4 Justice campaigner Mark Harris said:
All we did was push open the gate which wasn’t even locked, put a ladder up and climbed up.
In this time of heightened terror alerts, I can’t believe Harriet Harman has such lax security. My house is more secure than this.
Mark O’Connor is the founder of Fathers 4 Justice, and he promises that this is just the first of many protests lined up over the coming weeks, leading up to Father’s Day.
This is the beginning of a series of protests leading up to Fathers’ Day.
We’ve got absolutely nowhere in terms of dialogue with the Government and if anything the situation for fathers is infinitely worse.
Politicians don’t want to tackle the elephant in the room, fatherhood, for fear of upsetting single mothers.
They say you can abandon your children tomorrow if you pay.
The protesters say they will remain on the roof of Harriet Harman’s home until she reads Mr Harris’ book, entitled ‘Family Court Hell’ According to Mr O’Connor they have enough supplies with them to stay up on the roof for a week.
The group has been famed for their highly publicised stunts over the last few years. In 2004 they threw condoms filled with flour at Prime Minister Tony Blair, and one of their group climbed into a ledge of Buckingham Palace dressed as Batman. They’ve also invaded a live broadcast of the lottery draw on BBC 1.
Mr O’Connor says there is more to come from the Fathers 4 Justice, and the CSA are being targeted.
There will be an official protest in Bristol, when we’ll be targeting the Child Support Agency (CSA) in a way which hasn’t been seen before.
We’ll also be revisiting many of our older protests.
According to Scotland Yard:
Officers are currently in attendance at the location and are speaking to the men.
CSAhell.com offers its full support to the two men, and hope they manage to stick it out until they get the results they want.
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